June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton
urged cities and the World Bank to work on curbing methane
emissions from landfills and charcoal, saying those steps first
would buy time in the fight against global warming.

Politicians may need years to work out a way to limit the
carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, and it would
be cheaper and quicker to focus on other gases first, Clinton
said at the C40 meeting of mayors from the world’s largest
cities in Sao Paulo today. Methane has 25 times the global
warming impact of carbon dioxide, also known as CO2.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick, at the same
gathering, pledged to streamline the procedures cities follow to
tap his institution for aid and expertise on environmental
projects. The effort is aimed at opening up $6.4 billion
earmarked by the bank for climate-relief projects, which
Zoellick said could prompt $50 billion of investment from
private banks and companies.

“The financing has not been available for these things
because they have been looked at as eyesores, not goldmines,”
Clinton, 64, said. “World Bank financing may give us the chance
to do something historic.”

Methane gas is produced by household waste and livestock.
It’s also released from degraded peat bogs and thawing
permafrost. The gas is one of six covered by the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which limits emissions in industrial nations through
2012. Charcoal, which is widely used for cooking in Africa, is
also a source of methane emissions.

Landfill Methane

“The low hanging fruit is capturing greenhouse gases from
landfills,” said David Cadman, a Vancouver council member and
president of the Bonn-based Local Governments for Sustainability
organization. “Landfill methane is a huge problem. We’re
capturing it and pumping it into a power plant and using the
energy for heat.”

The World Bank agreement with the C40 will give cities
“one window” access to receive funding through climate
investment funds, which they created three years ago, and in
providing technical expertise for climate programs, Zoellick
said.

“For too many people living in cities, frequent floods and
landslides are already a fact of life,” Zoellick said.
“Climate change will make this worse. We must put cities on the
front line of the struggle to adapt.”

$10.6 Trillion

The C40 mayors represent a combined population of 297
million people, are responsible for emitting 2.9 billion tons of
CO2 and have a total gross domestic product of $10.6 trillion,
according to report by London-based consultancy Arup Ltd.

“You can get a loan to buy a boat or a car but not to
retrofit your house for renewable energy," said Portland, Oregon
Mayor Sam Adams. ‘‘This is going to address the thing I see is
holding us back.’’

The World Bank will simplify the application process for
financing for climate projects, which often face language and
other barriers, said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who
leads C40. The mayor is founder of Bloomberg LP, the parent
company of Bloomberg News.

‘‘The intense burning of fossil fuels in the world’s cities
not only contributes to climate change, it also clogs the
streets, pollutes the air, and shortens the lives of their
millions of residents,’’ Bloomberg said. ‘‘If we don´t stop
right now polluting our world and continuing to spill greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, the consequences may very well be
irreversible.’’

Public Health

Clinton said targeting methane and charcoal could make a
‘‘dramatic reduction’’ in greenhouse gases and ‘‘solve a public
health problem.’’

UN climate envoys meeting in Bonn next week are focusing on
binding limits for CO2 emissions and other gases, an ambition
Todd Stern, the U.S. climate negotiator, has said is out of
reach for now.

‘‘It’s very evident that the legislative body in the U.S.
has disengaged,’’ Christiana Figueres, executive secretary for
the UN Convention on Climate Change, told a news conference at
the Carbon Expo in Barcelona today.

At the mayors meeting in Sao Paulo, delegates focused on
efficiency measures that would cut emissions more cheaply than
shifting the fuel used by utilities away from coal and oil
toward renewables such as wind and solar.

Clinton, whose foundation has been studying ways to combat
global warming, said a $1 billion investment in a coal-fired
plant in the U.S. would create 870 jobs. The same money would
underpin 1,900 jobs for solar energy, 300 jobs for wind and
7,000 jobs in energy efficiency industries, he said.

The mayors also agreed to adopt a common way of measuring
city greenhouse gas emissions, saying that will allow better
monitoring and aid access to finance for projects that cut CO2.